When visiting South Africa’s Cape Province, you have a vast range of holiday pleasures at your fingertips: the cuisine could not be better, you bump into art wherever you go – and the landscape is breathtaking.

The high-speed train takes just under five hours to make the 1,300-kilometre journey from Beijing to Shanghai. The journey’s an experience in its own right, not least because it takes passengers through a region as fascinating historically as it is gastronomically.

If you haven’t seen Shiraz and the surrounding area, so the saying goes, then you haven’t seen Iran. And it’s true. Wherever you go in the city, you find remnants of grand histories: from the ancient city of Persepolis to the spacious parklands of the 19th century.